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Friday 29th December 2000 Day 17 We all woke up around 7:30am. As there were no signs of any tidal wave damage, we decided to go for breakfast! Well, it wasn't quite a unanimous decision. Hannah just couldn't wake up. Julie took on the role of her saviour and attacked her with the Evian water spray to exorcise the sleepiness out of her. Hannah's response was to squeal and shout abuse at her tormentor, but Julie wasn't giving up until she surrendered and got her out of bed. Hannah had no intention of yielding, but as she wriggled to avoid the cold squirts of mineral water, she lent too hard against the wall, and sent the bed flying in the opposite direction, dumping her with a thump onto the wooden floor. Julie's 'Operation Wakey Wakey' was completed successfully! We made it to the breakfast buffet, and I must admit to being impressed by the spread! Although I could still only manage toast, the selection on offer was even better than the previous resort. I stood by the toaster for what seemed like ages, getting very hot, and swaying in my weakness. Eventually a member of staff came to my assistance, and switched the toaster on! How stupid did I feel? My stomach felt fine after eating the first round, so I decided to push myself a little bit further and tried some baked beans on toast. Walking back to our room we noticed all the crabs on the beach, and yes, they were as big as they seemed last night! These incredible animals fascinated us so much that we fetched three deck chairs and sat on the beach for hours watching them. |
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They were scurrying from one hideaway to another, busy digging their home for the day. I wasted a whole roll of film trying to get that perfect crab photo but I'm sure the little buggers were teasing me though. They stood on the sands, statuesque, in a pose that, if captured, would have graced any wildlife photographer's collection. Then as soon as I pointed my lens in their direction, they would scarper down their hole! |
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Then from out of nowhere this bald headed retard came and spoilt our fun by stomping along the beach, filling in all the crab holes! He was like a madman possessed, on a mission to destroy every honest hard working crab's hole. He stormed his way the entire length of the bay, trashing without respect every sign of crab. Our entertainment had come to a sudden end. Twat! We tried snorkelling for a while but the high tide made the conditions unsuitable for a water-wimp like me, so we decided to give that a miss! It was now 1pm, and today had been the most enjoyable time spent on a beach. Strangely, it was probably because today was a dull, windy, and rainy kind of a day! It was still nearly 80ºF though. The cloud cover was so deceiving in its protection. |
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It wasn't at all sunny, nor oppressively hot, yet Hannah had caught the sun quite severely on her legs. How crazy is it to get sun burnt in the rain? We had lunch at 2pm. Julie and I shared a pizza, and in fact I ate more than my fair share! Perhaps Julie had more of the fries. My appetite was certainly returning. Hannah's appetite was as big as ever as she ate a main course Yellow Curry, all to herself. |
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After quickly popping to the gypsy village for more bottled water, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, directly outside our chalet. We settled down for the matinee performance from the crabs. One in particular was digging his hole, only feet away from my feet. After an hour we decided to have another go at snorkelling. This time the tide was out so we could wade further out towards the coral. This is where we found some amazingly coloured tropical fish that swam up to within inches of our touch, and then darted away into the murky waters. |
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My flapping legs were churning up the seabed slightly, ruining my visibility. Once again I soon got the hang of floating, without flapping. This was a fantastic experience. I know it wasn't swimming with dolphins, but floating with tropical fish is the best I'm going to get in the marine world. When we decided to return to shore, the twat (and I'm sorry but it's the only word I can use to describe him) was back filling up the crab holes again. He'd even walked up to our deck chairs and destroyed the home of the crab that had kept me company for the best part of an hour. We saw him returning to his partner, (who had an arm in plaster?) She gave him a 'My Hero' hug, and he looked well chuffed with his afternoon's work of minesweeping. In one respect it could be viewed as gallant or even romantic to have dedicated the entire afternoon to rid the whole area of those nasty horrible crabs for his sweetheart. However he was still a twat in our eyes. We left the beach, and returned indoors to dry off, and relax once more by the usual methods. Gameboy, Snake game on the mobile phone, writing in my journal, and reading our books. After last night's fiasco we had booked a table for 8:30pm in the non-smoking area in an attempt to avoid the cigar puffing mafia family. Julie and Hannah decided to pop to the Happy Hour first at half past seven, leaving me still dozing on the bed. I could so easily have stayed there and progressed from my dozing into a deep coma, but I forced myself to get up and I joined them some twenty minutes later. No cocktails tonight, just a glass of wine, a bottle of Carslberg, and a bottle of water. I'd just missed the resident band. Ah well, never mind. We moved on to the restaurant where they were serving a large buffet. The only problem was that they had a limited vegetarian choice on offer. So we decided to eat off the menu. Julie had a grizzly Rib-Eye Steak, which once again fell short of expectations. I liked the look of what Hannah had for lunch, so I chose the Yellow Curry for my supper, and I wasn't at all disappointed. Despite my tender state I managed to eat it all. It was a relatively mild curry, and easy to eat. Hannah on the other had moved on to the harder stuff and ordered the hotter Red Curry. With her head down, and performing this amazing shovelling action, she polished off her plate within minutes. She didn't immediately suffer a bad chilli reaction either, that is until she stopped to take a breath. It was then that the spice kicked in, and hit her like a volcano. Tears did well up in her eyes. Two bottles of water were needed to douse the flames! We left the restaurant at 9:30pm, and walked pass the TV room. We decided to go in and watch whatever was on. They were showing a film so I suppose it was the closest thing to a cinema that they had. It was a big room, with a large screen television in the corner. Instead of seats, they had rows of Thai cushions. People were lying on them, but we didn't find them that comfortable. They were very hard. Resting the back of my neck on the top of the triangular shaped cushion only resulted in me stopping the blood circulation to my head, and giving my whole scalp that 'pins and needles' feeling. Lying in this awkward position only seemed to encourage indigestion. I had to excuse myself several times, and make a dash for the toilet, which was next door. We were the only ones lounging on the floor in the back row, so luckily I didn't have to climb over strangers with my disgusting time bomb. Appropriately the film was 'Liar, Liar', as my bum was on fire! Watching it for the second time this week, we still laughed out loud at all the funny parts again. We went straight to bed after it finished, at around 11pm. The latest evening we've had in a while!
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